Leftovers Conundrum

I cooked 2 things this week that were not very popular with my little family. One was mushroom and onion pork chops and the other was a broccoli soup. I hardly ever cook with pork chops, but they were on sale and Matt wanted me to try to do something with them. The recipe I used left them a little on the tough side and not very juicy, and as a result I still have 6 of the 10 chops I had cooked. :-(

The other recipe I made was a broccoli soup. The recipe said 2 heads would serve 4 people and since we thrive on leftovers for lunch I decided to make a double batch. The recipe called for cooking the broccoli in chicken broth and I usually use Better Than Bullion paste. It's very flavorful and has no MSG in any of the varieties. I cooked the broccoli in water and was planning on adding the bullion paste right before pureeing only to discover that the only flavor I had in the fridge was beef. *sigh* I couldn't add any boxed chicken broth liquid because I already had enough liquid so I had to rely on seasonings for the flavor boost it needed. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't incredible either. I made ham melts to dip into our soup and everyone gobbled those up and hardly touched their soup. As Matt skipped the soup I sighed and said "If I had known I wouldn't have made a double flippin' batch. I thought it was cauliflower you didn't like?" He told me that he prefers broccoli over cauliflower, but it's just not his favorite. He did end up eating a small bowl of soup to fill in the gaps of a second missing sandwich that he would have preferred instead I'm sure. The next day I added a large cupful of Parmesan cheese which I thought made it quite tasty. Wes ate some of it for lunch but Bre still didn't want any of it. Maybe it was the texture, she's kind of texture sensitive sometimes. SO I still have 1/2 stock pot of broccoli soup I need to do something with, besides eat it all myself. lol

I've gotten a little lax with my low carb eating recently in the realm of bread and tend to default to sandwiches and chips for lunch if there is not much in the terms of leftovers, especially leftovers that anyone will eat. I was about to default to BP&J for the kids and I this afternoon and then decided that there must be SOMETHING else I could whip together that would not involve bread and carbs that cycle around to wanting more bread and more carbs for the rest of the day. Taking into account that tomorrow is grocery day and I am out of practically everything, here's what I came up with. Matt has the camera out coyote hunting this weekend otherwise I would have posted a picture as well. It was quite colorful and pleasing to the eye.

Leftovers Egg Skillet

4 eggs scrambled in coconut oil

1 finely diced mushroom & onion porkchop

1 cup of diced carrot and green bean leftovers

Salt & Pepper to taste

It made me think of the skillet eggs and potatoes that Matt makes for us when we go camping in the summer, except a bit healthier. We ate it with apples and a glass of raw milk. I thought it was delightful and finished every last bite. Wes ate most of his and Bre had her apples, milk and 1 bite of eggs before declaring she was full. Oh well! Can't win them all I guess.

I still have 5 pork chops and the rest of the broccoli soup to use so I think I'm going to attempt a Pork Chop Hash with the broccoli soup as the cream base and whatever other vegetables I can find in the fridge (cabbage, peppers, snow peas, cauliflower, etc.) for supper tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out. My mother is the queen of the leftovers remake and I think that even she would be proud of my re-creation attempts.